Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Where we are going .... the goal is is not to be sustainable - The Goal is for Scouting to thrive in every Greater Boston community.

For those of us who have participated in C.O.P.E. we know that the low elements are analogies for life's problems. The Scouts develop solutions and work together through trial and error and eventually solve the problem.  The magic of the course is not about completing the task - it's about making the connection to real life. It's special when the 13 year old says (often six months later) "I get it, it's like the "spider web" we have to think out a plan, before we just start jump into action, otherwise we won't get the whole patrol on the other side. This problem is just like that!" For a Scout, This problem of course could be anything, a weekend patrol menu, or a  camp-o-ree competition, or even better something at home or at school.

Our local strategic plan is just like that. Like a group of Scouts approaching a problem we have to work together and map out a plan. Certain aspects of our plan need to come before other aspects. Just like certain Scouts need to "go through the spider web first." Well, in this spider web analogy - we have more than half the team on the other side! And we are working well together,


In our illustration, many aspects of the council have made it through the challenge (web) and they are now stronger and able to help other aspects of the council through the web. This means over the next few years we will see all the remaining objectives in the plan achieved!

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Since it's the end of 2013, let's take a look back - and look forward. With many of our aspects of the council on the other side of the challenge - the activity starts to move a little quicker. I think we are at the tipping point.

Check out our year in review video.

Properties: Over the past few years we have made steady improvements to our camps of about $60,000 - $100,000 annually. Over those years the investment in camps exceeds $250,000. If you haven't walked through Storer since 2010 - you should visit and check out all the improvements. It's undeniable. We still retain ownership and actively use Massasoit, however we have moved our summer operation to Camp Norse. (also in Plymouth) Massasoit still enjoys active use each and every weekend, while our summer campers enjoy a facility upgrade through the partnership with Annawon Council. Finally, as of today we have raised almost $500,000 to be invested in Camp Sayre improvements during 2014. Sayre's improvements are equally undeniable - but frankly overshadowed by the program improvements :)

Membership Recovery:
Each year a certain amount of boys drop out of the program - for dozens of reasons, other interests, parent's decision, move away, older boys "age out" or pursue other activities. Each year we anticipate this and strive to loose less and recruit more so the organization as a whole continues to grow. Boston Minuteman retention is 72.11% that's right in the middle of the National retention bell curve, and particularly high for a Council with a large urban population and an investment in ScoutReach. (see the 2011 and 2013 Boston Globe articles about our urban retention). When the dust settled after the membership standards debate we were down about 600 Scouts more than usual. So to maintain our growth pattern we would have to recruit all our standard amount of Tiger Cubs + 600 additional Scouts. In the past six months we recovered about 400 of the additional 600 boys we lost. We recruited 17% more boys this year than usual, but that still wasn't enough. While that's a disappointment, it places us as the top New England. We will get back to our 2011 (our most recent high water mark) levels by June 2014.
Debt Elimination: We opened 2013 with $1,150,000 long term debt and a total debt position of over $2,000,000. This debt was created years ago and has severely hampered Boston Scouting forward progress ever since. For the past few years we have been developing our debt elimination plans and strategies. During 2013 we began to execute on those plans. In the last 12 months we have cut the long term debt in half and improved our debt position by $800,000. We anticipate completely eliminating the long term debt during the summer of 2014 and creating some surplus funds to start re-building the endowment.

Program: During 2013 we reopened the pool and today Scouts use the facility almost every weekend. We've also added guided Cub Scout canoe trips, a robust shooting sports program, outdoor skills, STEM camp, and most recently rock climbing and winter skills. These programs are just the beginning. Through these program enhancements we have been training dozens of leaders and parents. Enabling each troop and pack program to embed the programs and cost savings directly into their annual plans.
Marketing and PR: In 2013 we launched a collaborative Scouting for Food initiative. Thanks to all our leaders and Scouts in Eastern MA we collected just under 500,000 items of food for the needy and attracted significant media attention. Our results through our ScoutReach initiative continues to receive positive media feedback. Between, SOAR, Scouting for Food, select media advertising and great stories about great Scouts we have enjoyed a steady stream of positive media exposure for 3 years.
Finance: For the fourth year in a row we have significantly grown the budget and maintained an operating surplus. Simply stated this means we brought in more money than we spent in a given 12 month period. There are two methods that allow an average Scouter to feel an increase in support
1. Surplus = more money raised than spent in a given fiscal period, at the end of the year that can be re-invested in Scouting
2. Growth
= more money raised and spent in support of Scouting

The surpluses we secured have been used to pay the interest on the debt - sadly that means we have not yet seen the benefit of the annual surpluses. All the benefits and forward motion has been created by increased size of the budget (Growth) NOT from the 12 month surpluses. This means the Council still lives "paycheck to paycheck." The budget has grown from $1.8 million to $2.5 million.  All that cash pressure should end in 2014! When the debt is eliminated will start to re-invest future surpluses into the program. During the past four years the total operating surpluses equaled $200,000. ($50K, $100K, $0, $50K) While we can't count on that type of production each year it certainly speaks to wonderful opportunity and a potentially bright future. Please check out our profile on "the Giving Common" for some contextual information. The information on that site is gathered through independent audits, and provides a comparison to other non-profits. We are proud of the % returned to program and after the 2013 audit is complete you'll see the long term indebtedness shrink dramatically.
Customer Service / Program Delivery
This is wear it all comes together. there is no value in all the other successes if they don't translate to practical support and programs for everyone involved.Check out the "Yelp" review about the Camp Sayre programs. The trend of our reviews has been getting better and better each month and year. Customer service as well continues to improve. However, not fast enough - we are continuing to re-tool and adjust to make the council more responsive and nimble to your needs.